Job: TV presenter, columnist and authorAge: 51Industry: broadcasting, publishingSalary: earnings from his company Bedder 6 alone thought to be in region of £800,000 paNew entry

Love or loathe Jeremy Clarkson, there are few pot-bellied tight-jeans-wearing fiftysomethings that are able to get attention in quite the same way.

As a newspaper columnist this Everybloke's views in the Sunday Times made him in 2009 the columnist most people would pay to read online – a boon in the age of the paywall. His Sun column also remains popular, and his books always seem to lurk near the top of the bestseller lists.

Our panel also flagged up his influence as part of the "Chipping Norton set" that includes David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks. But those dinner parties are not as regular as they once were.

His private life has seen some unwelcome headlines and he was dragged into the Twitter injunctions row when it was falsely alleged he had an affair with Jemima Khan (joking that he probably minded less than she did).

But away from his private life he's a canny operator. He keeps an equity stake in his BBC work following a deal with Worldwide in 2008 and he is one of the corporation's most valuable assets.

Indeed, Clarkson's mere presence on the BBC is a handy bulwark against claims that the corporation is beset with pinko lefties. It's one thing you can't accuse him of being.